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With a school time halfterm coming up, this might offer advice where to pass the time.

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If you happen to be in London, especially in the vicinity of the thoroughfare known as Regent Street, during the Spring half term period, then a visit to Hamleys’ flagship store could well be of interest and worth the effort. A recent communication has informed me, that during the period from 16th February to the 3rd March, Hamleys will be offering seven floors of live entertainment, fun workshops, new toys and exclusive prizes to attack the attention of all and sundry.

Younger members of the family will get the opportunity to meet their favourite characters from some of this year’s biggest movie releases. As an added incentive, each day one lucky family will have the honour of ringing the world-famous Hamleys bell to signal the opening of the store to the general public – a bit like the ceremony carried out at certain cricket Test Match events to mark the start of the day’s play.

So lets take a look at some of the activities that will be available to the young and older visitors to the location that has been described as the “Finest Toy Shop in the World” during this particular period. Younger members of the family will have the chance to meet up with Emmett, Willstyle and General Mayhem from “The Lego Movie 2” while joining in with the Hamleys’ LEGO Building Workshops. Prizes will be awarded to the best builders. If the child is more interested in animal training then they could dress up as a Viking and have their picture taken with Hybrid and Hiccup from “How to Train Your Dragon: Hidden World”. Other possible activities include taking part in Scalextric time trail racing with the Hamleys Race Team or take part in Quidditch Training and a Sorting Hat ceremony plus take the chance to challenge Hamleys’ Board Game Expert.

In the meantime various live entertainment events will be taking place. There will be finger-popping puppet shows. Story Time sessions to sit through plus LEGO Brick and Fortnite dance sessions. Timed to occur at 4.00 pm, a daily parade of some of Hamleys’ best-loved characters will take place to entertain the customers.

But that is not the limit to the available activities. Visitors can take a picture with LEGO Hagrid or the Undesirable Poster in Harry Potter’s Wizarding World. The image can then be posted on Instagram using the tag #Hamleys for the chance to win £250 worth of Harry Potter toys. There will also be the opportunity to dress up and pose for a photo in the life-size Barbie Toy Box and post the result on Instagram using the #Hamleys tag for a chance to win a signature Barbie doll. Specific to Saturday 23rd February will be the chance to take pictures in the L.O.L. Surprise! Photo booth.

Continuing with the photography theme will be the opportunity to win the entire Playmobil “How to Train Your Dragon” toy range. You get the chance to do this by taking a picture with the “How to Train Your Dragon” characters Astrid and Hiccup before posting it on Instagram using the #Hamleys and #HiddenWorld tags. Happy snappers can take a picture in the “How to Train Your Dragon” movie scene and be rewarded with a free picture in a branded frame plus a free Viking helmet. Finally take pictures with characters from the LEGO Movie 2 and post them on Instagram with #Hamleys and #LEGOMovie 2 tags to win the entire The LEGO Movie 2 toy range.

Visitors, and of course customers, will be enable to view thousands of new toys as they arrive every day. Included in their numbers will be LEGO Movie 2, L,O,L, Surprise!, Fortnite, Harry Potter, “How to Train Your Dragon” and many more.